Massa tries out the F138 in the wet track of the Circuit of Catalunya

Felipe Massa: "The weather conditions ruined the last day of testing."

This was the fourth and final day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and the other ten Formula 1 teams at the Catalunya circuit, on the outskirts of Barcelona.

The second test session ended with bad weather, which dominated Friday from first thing in the morning to late afternoon. The team’s work programme was adapted to the track conditions to allow Felipe Massa to get a taste of the behavior of the F138 with wet tires. In all the Brazilian completed 80 laps with a fastest time of 1:27.553.

Felipe Massa: “Today was a difficult day for everyone and it’s a pity that the weather conditions ruined the last day of testing. I would have preferred to continue the work on tires and set-up that Fernando started yesterday but the unpredictable weather made it very difficult to make accurate judgements about the car’s behavior.

When the rain gave us a moment’s break I completed a long run on the medium tire compound – but the track was very cold and still slippery so it was hard to warm up the tires and make a clear comparison between performance and degradation.

In the afternoon, the wet track didn’t allow us to return to slick tires so we concentrated on some set-up tests with the intermediate tires. I tried different aerodynamic configurations and I am satisfied with the behavior of the car.

Certainly I would have preferred to test with better conditions but it was still useful to get a reference point in the wet.”

Testing in preparation for the start of the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship will take place at the same circuit from February 28 to March 3.